Is there someone lurking on 5 Doves that is really
interested in the Shroud of Turin and physical evidence
of the resurrection? I was just wondering, because it
is kind of strange that I just got this email from Joe
Marino today. I am forwarding it in case someone
wants to buy his new book. I'll definitely get a
copy.

Back in the late 1970's I remember praying to God that I
would like to come back to the Christian faith, BUT I didn't
believe in the resurrection, etc. It wasn't too long
after my prayer when I saw my first article on the
Shroud. God is no respecter of persons,
so He gave me the physical evidence I needed, similar to
what he gave the disciple Thomas. In the Gospel of
John, Jesus tells Thomas that it is better to believe without
physical evidence, but if you're one of those "faith
challenged" people like me, He'll give you the evidence you
need to believe.

Below is the email I just received from Joe
Marino. I mentioned him in one of my last posts about
the Shroud. bc

Hello Everyone,

Please excuse the impersonal style of this
announcement. I'm sending it to quite a few
people at once and can't be more personal.

Joseph Marino, a former Benedictine
monk, has been studying the Shroud of Turin
since 1977. As the Catholic Church’s most
revered relic, the Shroud is believed by many
to be the burial cloth of Jesus. While at the
monastery, Marino lectured extensively on the
subject in the St. Louis, Missouri area,
produced a newsletter read in 23 countries,
wrote articles, appeared on local, national
and international radio and TV programs, and
attended an exhibition of the Shroud in Turin
in 1998. He was once referred to by a
parishioner at the monastery church as the
monk “who’s wrapped up in the Shroud.”

Currently Marino is a library
associate at Ohio State University. He has
amassed one of the largest personal
collections of Shroud materials in the world.
He and his late wife, M. Sue Benford, (shown
in accompanying photo) presented a paper at
the Sindone 2000World
Congress in Orvieto, Italy,
hypothesizing that the reason the 1988 C-14
dating of the Shroud resulted in a date range
of AD 1260-1390 for the cloth was because of a
sixteenth-century repair in the sample area.
The combined sixteenth-century repair with
first-century cloth definitely could have
produced the medieval dates. Raymond Rogers,
one of the scientists from the Shroud of Turin
Research Project who studied the Shroud in
1978, thought the hypothesis was nonsense.
Rogers had in his possession samples of the
Shroud and said he would prove the hypothesis
wrong in five minutes. However, less than an
hour after he began to examine the samples, he
concluded that Benford and Marino were
probably correct. Other scientists have
independently verified Rogers’ findings, which
were published in 2005 in the prestigious,
peer-reviewed journal, Thermochimica
Acta. Benford and Marino
wrote several follow up articles about
their theory, which now has significant
support in the Shroud community and beyond.
Previously unpublished notes from a key
scientist, as well as correspondence with
other key scientists involved with the Shroud,
provide important new historical data. Marino
continues to stay active in Shroud research.

WRAPPED UP IN
THE SHROUD is a real-life chronicle of one
long-time researcher, who has devoted nearly
thirty-five years to studying this enigmatic
cloth. Breezy and entertaining, yet powerful in
its scope, the book recounts strange, humorous
and at times mystical events surrounding
Marino’s involvement, and even includes a tragic
but touching love story. This book is unlike any
other on the Shroud you have ever read.